Aging gracefully in the Provand’s Lordship – medieval dwelling and the oldest remaining house in Glasgow. Because what better way to make me feel better about my birthday than surrounding myself with things even older than I am.

I was recently asked to explain where I’d visited in Japan using Game of Thrones as a rough geographical guide. I replied that if Tokyo were King’s Landing, then where Colin and Kim now live is the blazing south of Dorne, and my former home of Akita would be the frozen plains of Winterfell. Never was this more apparent than when we paid a visit to the Fukiagehama Sand Art Festival: rather in contrast to the snow festival I’d seen whilst living in the north.

The plan had been to drive up to Miyazaki on the east coast but, as we set out on the road that morning and the skies became increasingly dismal and torrential, we decided it might be an idea to stay slightly closer to home rather than suffer an 8-hour round trip to stand outside in the rain.

My one condition to myself on getting tattoos was that any image I’d have engraved permanently on my body had to represent a significant milestone in my personal history. The difficulty, however, was never in thinking of historic life markers to commemorate, but rather in choosing a single image which encapsulated that period in my mind (and, equally pertinently, which I’d be happy wearing on my skin for the rest of my life).